Retiree Health Bargaining (Unit 18) Update - May 1, 2014

In early April, UC-AFT members responded to our bargaining survery covering retiree health care and pension issues.  The responses to the survery were the basis of our initial proposals on May 1. (Click here to see the actual proposals.)

UC-AFT inital proposals May 1 at UCOP:

• We want to get all of our members who were hired before the day of ratification of the present agreement into the old retiree health care plan.
• We want to address our concerns about how lecturers on 9-month contracts get pension and retiree healthcare credit. We fear that many lecturers aren’t getting the service credit they deserve. 
• We want UC stop counting hours (750 hour rule) to determine pension and retiree healthcare eligibility, and instead give people credit based on their percentage of employment in any term. Many lecturers loose eligibilty for service credit each year at the end of thei appointment, then have to wait months after being rehired to become eligible again.  This is unfair.  
• We want anyone placed in the new (2013) pension be able to choose to pay 3% more each month to go back to the old (1976) pension. 
• We want our retirees’ health insurance contributions be capped through 2017. AFSCME got a commitment that UC won’t raise their employee’s retiree health insurance contributions during this time period.

University of California response to our proposals:

• Their counter proposal was that they would let us do away with the old rule of calculating retiree medical eligibility (see rule here) and replace it with a simpler system: anyone hired on or before June 30th 2013 who is UCRP eligible is grandfathered into the old retiree medical plan. 
• They said that our concerns about the 750 hour rule and the pension are out of bargaining scope, and therefore they think we are not legally allowed to bargain about it.
• They said that the current 750 hour rule is to our benefit-- UC-AFT does not believe this to be true.  We can only find out if individual members with quarterly appointments request an audit of your pension credit.  To request an audit of your retirement credit, visit: http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/forms/pdf/uben-132.pdf  If you have additional questions, please contact the UC-AFT Field Representative or union steward on your campus.
• UCOP argued that our pension proposal was outside of bargaining scope, however they did request a “costing out” of our pension proposal.  UC-AFT maintains that because all of these issues are connected to retiree medical, they are within scope and therefore we can bargain about them.

NEXT BARGAINING SESSION IS JUNE 2ND 2014!